The head of the federal agency that runs the National Weather Service defended the work of government forecasters on the recent outbreak of severe weather in the United States, pushing back against GOP criticism that the Obama Administration is trying to add money for climate change research at the expense of regular weather forecasts.
At a hearing of the House Science Committee, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan started by praising the work of forecasters to give people ample warning about severe weather that ravaged a number of southern states this week.
"I'm proud of the work they do," Sullivan told lawmakers, saying "they gave accurate outlooks six days in advance."
But not everyone echoed that praise, as later in the hearing, the NOAA chief was taken to task by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), who charged that President's budget for 2015 puts $31 million into new climate change research, but none into forecasting.
"We have people that died this week that should have had more lead time than one minute," Bridenstine said.
"The statistics I have sir, say they had 20-29 minutes," of warning, Sullivan replied.
"There are people that did, but there are people that got less," Bridenstine shot back.
Sullivan's testimony came as date from the National Weather Service itself has acknowledged that the US supercomputer weather model - the GFS - has fallen behind two European models and a Canadian weather prediction effort, into fourth place for accuracy.
"Yes, the country that invented numerical weather prediction and the one that possesses the largest weather research community in the world is moving further back in the pack," lamented University of Washington weather expert Cliff Mass.
While the NOAA chief said she was unfamiliar with the fourth place data, Sullivan acknowledged there is work to do on the U.S. forecasting model front to catch up to the Europeans.
"Our performance has lagged behind them on certain weather events, certainly not on all weather events over the last few years," said Sullivan, who gave no time frame for when NOAA might buy a new weather supercomputer - money for that was approved several years ago by the Congress.
Her answers left some committee members grumbling.
"America's leadership has flipped in severe weather forecasting," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). "European weather models routinely predict America's weather better than we can."
Sullivan said staffing shortages at the National Weather Service stem, in part, from what she labeled the "extreme consequences" of budget cuts under sequestration - an argument that GOP lawmakers think is overblown.
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